Famed Hacker Barnaby Jack Dies Suddenly

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Security researchers and other hackers love to show off their
latest hacks and tricks at conferences, yet many of the
presentations end up being underwhelming, with only a calculator
appearing on a screen to demonstrate success.

Not so with New Zealand-born hacker Barnaby Jack. He made ATM's
spit out cash on stage, made insulin pumps over-deliver to induce
diabetic shock, and
rigged up pacemakers to kill wearers with lethal jolts of
electricity.

Jack died last night (July 25) in San Francisco, Reuters reported, citing the city's
medical examiner's office. No cause of death was given.
Via Twitter, Jack's sister Amberleigh Jack confirmed his
death.

Jack was to demonstrate remote-controlled hacks of pacemakers and
implantable defibrillators at the Black Hat security conference
in Las Vegas next week.

He was a hero to the thousands of researchers and hackers due to
descend upon Sin City for the annual Black Hat/DEF CON week of
presentations and parties.

"God, the stories. Nobody caused such hilarious trouble
like @barnaby_jack. You kids with your lulz are about to learn
about a PRO, " tweeted well-known security researcher Dan Kaminsky. " I was actually holding out
hope that, of anyone I knew, he was just enough of a [jerk] to
fake his own death. Damnit, @barnaby_jack."

"RIP @barnaby_jack. Still hoping this is a stunt as epic as his
2010 ATM hack and that Reuters is about to print a correction,"
tweeted Forbes information-security reporter Andy Greenberg.

At the time of his death, Jack was director of embedded-device
security for Seattle information-security firm IOActive. He had
previously worked for McAfee, Juniper Networks and eEye Digital
Security.